Orion Nebula - Progress, it all nearly worked right.

[The Thing]

This is my first 'successful' long exposure image. It's only been two years since I started imaging . It's 4 minute exposure (I have ten frames and will process them sometime soon), my longest before that was 90 seconds.

I have finally got my guiding sorted using Skywatcher AT80 with Phillips SPC900 unmodded using wxAstroCapture - PHD went wobbly after a couple of minutes every time.

The image was captured using a Minolta Dynax 7D at ISO800 at prime focus with an Orion SkyGlow SCT filter. It is totally unprocessed except for conversion to JPEG and it's 1/3 original size. The camera was set to use a colour temperature of 5500K.

I know the stars aren't round and it's all fuzzy but it gave me a real thrill! I started at 20:30 and started getting images that made me go wow at 02:30 .



BTW I know its M42 but I started out going for M45 Pleaides and the Minolta capture software has to have the camera turned off before you can change the file capture name so I didn't bother.

[JohnP]

Excellent - Well done Dunc & congratulations on your first successful LX image. I look forward to seeing the final stacked image - hopefully there is no stopping you now you have the guiding sorted...

John

[Fay]

Duncan, I can imagine how excited you were!!!

That is really good for a first attempt & a lot better than my images of M42 up to this point.

Fay

[MarkS]

Duncan,

Well done!  That's a great first guided image.  You must be so pleased to get everything working.

Was it done last night?  I thought last night was cloudy.

In my opinion M42 is a better subject to choose in any case - it's got so much beautiful colour.

Congratulations.

Mark

[The Thing]

Thanks everyone.

It was Saturday night. Lovely and clear, hope we get a few more like it over Christmas and New Year!

I will be in Normandy from tomorrow (work then play) and I'm taking the whole caboodle so hopefully I will get a load of good subs from much darker skies. M42 is great to practice with! I will share the results in the New Year.

[RobertM]

That's excellent for a first long exposure.  There's quite a bit of nebulous detail lurking in that image.  Hope you enjoy your break and we look forward to seeing the fruits of your labour.

[Mike]

Very good indeed for a first time ! Well done.

[Tony G]

It was Saturday night. Lovely and clear, hope we get a few more like it over Christmas and New Year!

Great image Dunc, and a bit of poetry to go with it.

Tony G